Monday, April 6, 2009

Price on Judge Richard S. Arnold

Judge Richard S. Arnold: A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench (2009) is a new book by Polly J. Price, Emory University School of Law. She has posted a book description, table of contents and the Introduction on SSRN. Price is a former law clerk of Judge Arnold. A blurb for her book comes from none other than former President Bill Clinton, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the Forward. Here's the abstract:
In my new book - Judge Richard S. Arnold: A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench (Prometheus 2009) - I examine the life and career of Judge Richard Arnold, who served on the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from 1980-2004. As a college student in the 1950s, Arnold had deep misgivings about Brown v. Board of Education as a constitutional matter. Yet he would later preside over the Little Rock school desegregation cases with a firm commitment to federal protection of civil rights and institutional reform. In this book I examine desegregation and other pressing federal court issues in the closing decades of the twentieth century, including the death penalty, abortion, free speech, and voting rights.
The book also features excerpts from Arnold's diary of his clerkship with Justice William Brennan in 1960, an important year for the Warren Court.
In this SSRN paper, I reproduce the table of contents and the introduction to the book.
Here's the blurb:

"Polly J. Price offers an intimate look into the brilliant legal mind of Judge Richard S. Arnold. A key witness to, and strong supporter of, the civil rights movement, Judge Arnold sat on the bench during a tumultuous time in our nation's history. Price carefully examines Arnold's personal papers to reveal his motives, deliberations, and integrity in the face of great moral debate.... [This book] provides fascinating insight into the inner workings of the federal judiciary as reflected by the life of one of its most exceptional and courageous members" --Former President Bill Clinton